Opinion: Arizona may be heavily involved in the testing. But there are plenty of reasons to believe self-driving, ride-sharing cars will never happen.

The company's initial public offering — with a target of more than $20 billion — is expected shortly, ahead of rival Uber. Key to wooing public investors, however, is showing potential for strong returns. That’s a problem because both ride-hailing giants spend more than they earn.

Their biggest expense? Driver salaries. In the first quarter of 2018, Uber raked in $11.3 billion in revenue, more than $8 billion of which was spent on paying drivers.

Riders who can are greeted by human drivers in the front seat (Waymo added them owing to safety concerns).

Uber and Lyft’s own efforts with self-driving technology have fared no better. Some say this isn’t the let-the-robot-drive, anyone-can-ride experience that self-driving companies have long promised us. Maybe not, but it's hardly surprising.

For one thing, driverless does not mean humanless. Sensors and software might trim the need for human labor but do not — contrary to what self-driving advocates say — purge that need entirely.

Machines are after all, imperfect. They stumble just like humans do. The impact of these blunders is trivial when fruit-picking, drink-pouring and burger-flipping robots break down. But when algorithms charged with our safety and security follow suit, the results can be deadly.

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Tempe police have released two angles of a fatal crash involving a self-driving Uber SUV and a pedestrian on March 18, 2018.

Technology is useful, but not infallible

Case in point, the airplane autopilot. First introduced in 1912, the system has since become a staple of the modern cockpit. And rightly so. When engaged, its algorithms can crunch data (think altitude, speed and position information) faster and more reliably than a human pilot ever could.

The result? A safer, smoother flying experience. But the autopilot (or its failure to be more precise) has also been implicated in several air crashes. That’s why autopilot use is contingent on human supervision. Regulators know that for its virtues, machines can’t be trusted to get it right all the time, every time (manufacturers know this, too, by the way).

Self-driving technology is no different. Unless these systems are proven faultless (which they aren’t), ceding control of public safety to algorithmic rather than human intuitions is an unlikely prospect at best. There goes the let-the-robot-drive future we were promised.

As for the anyone-can-ride experience, fulfilling that pledge is even less likely. The reason? Cost.

In driverless car dialogue, cost is almost an afterthought. Enthusiasts assume that consumers will forgo personal vehicle ownership in favor of using robocabs. Why shouldn’t they? Owning a car — in addition to being inefficient and unenjoyable — is pricey.

Robocabs, on the other hand, will be cheaper because driverless technology cuts out a taxi operator’s single largest expense — the driver. This makes robocabs a better bargain for consumers than owning a car.

Hailing a robocab won't be cheaper

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Waymo Safety driver Derek Sirakis monitors a self-driving car Nov. 28, 2018, during a demonstration ride in Chandler, Ariz. Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert will be the first cities in the world with Waymo One self-driving service. Michael Chow/The Republic

Waymo Safety driver Derek Sirakis monitors a self-driving car Nov. 28, 2018., during a demonstration ride in Chandler. Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert will be the first cities in the world with Waymo One self-driving service. Michael Chow/The Republic

Waymo Safety driver Derek Sirakis monitors a self-driving car Nov. 28, 2018, during a demonstration ride in Chandler. Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert will be the first cities in the world with Waymo One self-driving service. Michael Chow/The Republic

Waymo Safety driver Derek Sirakis monitors a self-driving car Nov. 28, 2018, while it turns during a demonstration ride in Chandler, Ariz. Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert will be the first cities in the world with Waymo One self-driving service. Michael Chow/The Republic

Waymo's self-driving car app demonstrated Nov. 28, 2018, during a ride in Chandler, Ariz. Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert will be the first cities in the world with Waymo One self-driving service. Michael Chow/The Republic

Waymo self-driving car app demonstrated Nov. 28, 2018, during a ride in Chandler. Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert will be the first cities in the world with Waymo One self-driving service. Michael Chow/The Republic

Waymo self-driving car app demonstrated during a ride Nov. 28, 2018, in Chandler. Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert will be the first cities in the world with Waymo One self-driving service. Michael Chow/The Republic

An error message displays on a screen Nov. 28, 2018, during a Waymo self-driving car ride in Chandler. Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert will be the first cities in the world with Waymo One self-driving service. Michael Chow/The Republic

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Such reasoning — while intuitively sound — is deeply flawed. For one thing, human involvement in driving can’t (and won’t) be entirely axed. Even if it were, personal car ownership would still be a better bargain than hailing a robocab.

The reason? Driver salaries, although significant, affect fares less than the cab’s utilization rate — the percent of miles it travels with a fare paying passenger. And that’s a problem because in some cities, drivers spend as little as 40 percent

Waymo’s strategy of “beginning to test pricing models” is probably wise. Were consumers to see the true price of hailing a robocab, they'd flee en masse. Why buy a slice of (robo) transportation for $6 when you can pay significantly less in a regular car?

Don’t expect self-driving proponents to accept this reality. They’re busy championing the virtues of a technology that never seems to quite arrive. “Fully self-driving cars are here,” proclaimed Waymo CEO John Krafcik in 2017.

The technology might be here, but its promises are on life support.

Ashley Nunes is a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and senior research associate at Harvard Law School. Reach him at nunesashley1@gmail.com.